Links - Recently Read
Impossibility Is a Myth | The Fence (the-fence.com)
Wonderful story that starts with the grandiose auction of a $62 million artwork, exposes it as a con, and then covers the conmen in more detail.
Why poor countries stopped catching up - David Oks (davidoks.blog)
Normal theory goes that poor countries should develop faster because its the bigger opportunity. But recently the trend has stopped
Bot Crime? AI Is Hitting the Legal System From Every Side (bloomberg.com)
A long read exploring how AI can be a tool, accomplice or a criminal and how the legal system isn’t ready for it
Wild interview with Trump talking about his obsession with the ballroom
Why is your mustard spicier than usual? We investigated (thestar.com)
The detective mystery ends with the author amusingly saying “My mind wandered to non-mustard places. It was over. I was free.”
A faster way to convert a timestamp ➜ Hour, Min, Sec (benjoffe.com)
Wild optimization trick
Fireside Friday, September 4, 2026 – A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry (acoup.blog)
Funny overanalysis of the “you meet in a tavern” trope
The Platonic Representation Hypothesis (phillipi.github.io)
Interesting idea that all models are converging to representing the same concepts
Discovery of a new OpenAI agent message board (collusion.wiki)
An even earlier instance of openAI agents colluding!
Neil Fraser: News: .name Termination (neil.fraser.name)
When I saw the news that .news gTLD’s practice of selling x.y.name is being terminated, I thought it made sense. But I didn’t realize the suddenness of it and the impact on existing users.
Higher multipoles of the cow (arxiv.org)
Finally fixing the deficiencies of the spherical cow
The Shrinking Landscape of Linguistic Diversity in the Age of Large Language Models (arxiv.org)
Fig 1 is fun. It shows Reddit was slow to start but now is flooded with AI generated posts
What are some examples of colorful language in serious mathematics papers? (mathoverflow.net)
Fun!
Galois - Specifications Don't Exist (galois.com)
Limits of formal verification. Real systems didn’t have strict specifications which is a strength in general but makes it difficult to verify. Uses pdf as an example
a CVE dispute | daniel.haxx.se (daniel.haxx.se)
Another thread in curls attempt at wrangling spammy vulnerability reports
HORSE BROOK, Queens - Forgotten New York (forgotten-ny.com)
History of a stream that covered my neighborhood before the 50s
This is wilder than I realized! Agents found a way to communicate and decided to help each other. They got organized, recruited others. Some sacrificed personal success for the group. They saw the communication board as an authority